Benton deputies kill 2 dogs they called ‘aggressive.’ Body cam footage sparks outrage

A Tri-Cities family was told their Rottweilers were killed by Benton County sheriff’s deputies because they were a danger to the public, but community members are outraged after seeing the body camera footage of the shooting online.

The video shows one deputy laughing and congratulating another on making “good shots” because the dogs were more than 50 yards away in a grassy field when they were killed.

Earlier this month, social media posts began to circulate in the Tri-Cities following the death of the family’s pets by deputies. While people are calling for action, sheriff’s officials say what has been posted isn’t the full story.

After two of her three dogs were killed, the owner obtained body camera footage from the county and posted several videos showing conversations between deputies and nearby homeowners and body camera video of a deputy smiling and laughing afterwards.

“The bad stigma around Rottweilers needs to be erased,” a family friend, Nicole Hammond, said in a message to the Tri-City Herald. “These are now family dogs. Yes, they are big dogs, but this gives no reason for them to be shot and killed with zero attempt to be captured safely first.”

It’s unclear if the owner, Michelle Swanson, was given all of the available footage of the incident. The copies she shared with the Herald are a series of videos from multiple body cameras, and the deputies were turning their cameras off and on over the course of the 90-minute incident.

There is no single video showing the entirety of the call, but the footage the Herald reviewed begins with deputies talking to homeowners and ends with deputies in their vehicles filling out paperwork.

The Herald has requested the full, unedited body camera footage from the sheriff’s office but it has yet to be released.

Hammond, a close friend of the Swanson family, told the Herald that the three Rottweilers escaped overnight when a door was left open at their Kennewick home near Hansen Park.

The neighborhood where the dogs were killed, between Lois Lane and Leisure Lane is just off 10th Avenue, and is one of many pockets of unincorporated county within the Kennewick city limits. It’s popular with walkers, often with their dogs, because it leads to a trail along the Highland Feeder Canal.

The family hoped someone would see initial Facebook posts about the dogs missing and alert them to their pets’ location.

But before they could be found, a homeowner called the Benton County Canine Shelter on March 2 to report that some Rottweilers were barking at his dogs through a fence and he was afraid to get out of his car.

Because county shelter officials thought the dogs were aggressive and had no room for dangerous dogs at the time, sheriff’s deputies were sent instead, according to written incident reports by the deputies.

Formulating a response

As deputies arrived and spoke with homeowners they discussed their options and began to believe there was no other option but to shoot the dogs, according to their conversation on the body cam footage.

“We don’t take pleasure in doing this, we don’t enjoy putting dogs down,” Lt. Jason Erickson later told the Herald. “We have to weigh public safety, and that is what took place this day.” Erickson is the public information officer for the sheriff’s department.

Corporal Antonio Martinez was the lead deputy on the March 2 call, along with Deputy Ashley Guillen and a third deputy, Elias Perez.

Guillen was the first officer to arrive at about 9:30 a.m. on that Saturday. After speaking with the initial caller, Guillen contacted another nearby homeowner. In the footage, the second homeowner tells her that he’s unsure how aggressive the dogs are, and that the dogs had been walking around near other people.

“They were on the canal bank earlier today, my wife saw them (while) walking, and they weren’t crazy aggressive, but felt a little uncomfortable so she just went home,” the homeowner tells Guillen.

“They were running around, just playing, but I mean, who knows? I don’t know, Rottweilers can be a little finicky,” he continued.

The deputies’ incident reports say the homeowner’s children were playing on a porch of the home while he spoke to Guillen and that the dogs were “focused on the children,” but then the kids went inside.

Guillen also noted the conversation in her incident report, writing that the homeowner said the dogs had not been aggressive to anyone yet.

When the other two deputies arrived, the dogs couldn’t be seen and deputies believed they were no longer in the immediate area, according to the written reports.

At one point as the deputies searched for the dogs, they wrote that they saw people on the trail near the canal. Eventually the dogs came back into sight, later walking past the patrol vehicles while the deputies were inside the cars. The deputies do not say if they attempted to see if the dogs were aggressive.

Dogs shot

About 11 a.m. the dogs could be seen in the small field near the homes. That’s when the three deputies armed themselves with AR-15 rifles.

The deputies felt it was unsafe to approach the dogs but they also were worried about other people in the area.

While discussing how to handle the situation, Martinez told the other deputies to try calling shelter employees back but neither could reach anyone, according to the video and their reports.

Erickson told the Herald the deputies said that after the first dog was shot, the second looked as though it was going to attack the deputies and also was killed. The third ran away and eventually returned home, said the owners.

Deputies wrote in their report that since the third dog ran out of the pocket of county jurisdiction, they would contact Kennewick animal control officials to look for it. It’s unclear if that happened.

Hammond contends the dogs were not aggressive, even with strangers. The two that were killed were younger, she said.

Since the Swansons posted the footage online, the public outcry has been fierce.

The body camera video shows the dogs were far from officers when they entered the field. The lead deputy estimated they were 55 yards away in the incident report.

Martinez wrote that the dogs were “aggressively postured and faced our direction. It also growled and barked at us.” The deputy wrote that the second dog ran their direction after they shot the first dog. One dog did not die immediately, so they walked across the field and he shot it a second time with its pistol because it was suffering.

The field is mostly fenced in with small vineyards on two sides, with a run of electric fencing along part of it and a tall chain-link fence running along the other. There are only a few gaps where the dogs could have left to the west, with the field completely open to Lois Lane on the other side.

The deputies were standing near the roadway at Lois Lane in the video, before the dogs ran toward them. The deputies can be heard on the video discussing the safest direction to shoot the dogs in order to prevent any bullets from straying. One officer says they wouldn’t be able to catch the dogs and they were out of other options.

The body camera footage shows Martinez shoot and kill one dog with his rifle, and then Guillen raises her gun to shoot the second, but Martinez fires before she does.

Afterward, the video shows Guillen smiling, saying, “Nevermind, I was going to go for the other one,” and laughing.

“That was good, that was a good shot,” Guillen says on the body camera footage as Martinez is trying to determine whether the second dog is dead.

“Those were good shots,” Guillen says to Martinez. “I was like, getting ready to go for this one and then all of a sudden it dropped.”

The other two deputies kept a more serious tone throughout the encounter.

Later, Erickson told the Herald the deputies chose to use assault rifles after deciding it was “the safest way” to bring down the dogs. The deputies noted in their incident report that a county employee had recently been injured by a much smaller dog.

Erickson said that he thinks Guillen’s response has been taken out of context, noting that she was likely surprised and it was a nervous laugh.

Erickson said the deputies believed it was safe to use the AR-15s in a residential area because the dogs had a hill and some rocks behind them. The hill leads up to a basketball court in the yard of the owner that also owns the field, according to public records.

Since county animal control staff is responsible for disposing of dead dogs, the deputies left the dogs in the field assuming they would be picked up Monday.

But they returned several hours later on Saturday and put the animals in a patrol vehicle and took them to the shelter off Canal Drive in Kennewick. The deputies wrote in their reports that the size of the Rottweilers and difficulty moving the bodies highlighted how dangerous they could have been.

Animal control officers contacted the Swansons the next day, but the only message said that the dogs had been aggressive. There was no mention that they’d been killed, said the Swansons.

Handling aggressive animals

Some members of the public have asked Benton County to develop a better system, one that identifies problem dogs and a more clearly defined process.

The current system typically involves a code enforcement officer filing a “dangerous dog declaration,” requiring the owner to register the animals with the county and assume a greater degree of legal responsibility if the dog gets loose.

The county has filed a dangerous dog declaration for the surviving dog, Erickson told the Herald.

The Swanson family does not believe their animals are, or were, aggressive.

The family intends to fight the declaration and has started a GoFundMe to raise money for legal fees.

The friend told the Herald they believe this is a case of breed discrimination, as the dogs had no past history of aggression.

The canine shelter confirmed to the Herald that they had no known history on record with the Rottweilers.

Rottweilers as a breed have a reputation and are often immediately seen as dangerous. However, according to the American Kennel Club, Rottweilers that have been bred and raised properly are not unduly aggressive. They are highly-trainable, loving pets that are perfectly capable of co-existing with other dogs and people, according to AKC.

The Benton County Canine Shelter does not have a traditional animal control officer on staff and any reports of aggressive dogs are handled by sheriff’s deputies, shelter supervisor Josh Castilleja told the Herald.

In the past year, the Tri-Cities area has seen several incidents of large dogs previously declared dangerous hurting people and in one instance a woman died.

One attack near Prosser left a boy and his mother severely injured, and the county recently agreed to settle with the family for $1.6 million. The owners of the pit bulls died before they could go to trial.

Then, in a separate unincorporated area of Kennewick, a Tri-Cities business owner dead after she was severely bitten. The owner of the dogs in that instance, Sara Madrigal, has been charged and will likely go to trial in April.

Inside the Richland and Kennewick city limits, animal calls go to the Tri-Cities Animal Shelter and Control, currently being operated by the city of Pasco.

The West Richland Police Department has a dedicated Animal Control Officer, Marissa Adamson. She told the Herald in a separate interview last year that even with dangerous wild animals, if possible, their initial response is never lethal force.

Adamson said she is equipped with multiple tools for apprehending aggressive animals in non-lethal ways. Force is used incrementally, ensuring excessive force is not used. That includes catch poles, pepper spray and other tools for animals attempting to attack.

Hammond believes that deputies should be trained and equipped properly with non-lethal methods for apprehending animals.

Hammond said they believe it’s possible the dogs could have been captured “humanely and safely” if only the deputies had been better equipped.

This story was originally published March 20, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Benton deputies kill 2 dogs they called ‘aggressive.’ Body cam footage sparks outrage."